New BlackBerry chief commits to handsets

The new man behind BlackBerry has committed to its handset business, after suggestions the manufacturer should kill it off.

John Chen will replace departing CEO Thorsten Heins, who was axed yesterday after BlackBerry decided to halt its sales process. Chen, who led a turnaround of computer database company Sybase, will serve as interim CEO until the company finds a new person to lead the company. Fairfax Capital, which was the only serious contender to take over the business, chose to invest $1bn into the manufacturer by raising money through institutional investors.

One of the main reasons for Blackberry's current dire straits is the failure of its BB10 operating system to catch fire among enterprise and consumer customers. BlackBerry wrote off almost $1bn due to unsold Z10 handsets earlier this year, raising suggestions the company should axe its hardware arm entirely.

In a interview with Reuters, Chen said he had faith in its hardware wing. He said: 'I know we have enough ingredients to build a long-term sustainable business. I have done this before and seen the same movie before.'